Putin Comes To Belarusian School

The Augean stables will have to be cleaned with bleach.

The happiest day of a Belarusian is May 31. Because tomorrow is a vacation. And the state will leave children for at least three months alone. For three months, the children will not go to "discussion clubs" with officials of district administrations, to district military festivals and solemn meetings. They will not be agitated to join the BRSM (Belarusian Republican Youth Union) and military-patriotic clubs, will not be threatened and intimidated, will not be convinced that war is good and right.

A familiar tenth-grader told how in the lessons of pre-conscription training they were told that 32 countries threaten Belarus with war. To be honest, I thought: why 32, and not 30, or 35, or 100, or some other round number? I began to try in every possible way to fit this mysterious number somewhere – to some understandable scheme. Maybe the school ideologues and military leaders meant NATO? But no, it does not fit – there are 31 states in NATO. Maybe then NATO + 1? For example, 31 countries that are part of the North Atlantic bloc, and some other foreign countries. For example, the Israeli military, which children were frightened of back in the seventies. On the other hand, whether Albania or North Macedonia threatens Belarus is a very controversial issue. Or Turkey, which became the last air corridor through which you can still get out of Belarus and fly to Europe. And the air communication with NATO Turkey resumed, so it is unlikely that this damn enemy military bloc is meant. Something else.

Or maybe we are talking about the European Union? Turkey with its flights is definitely not included there. True, there is a problem here: there are only 27 countries in the EU. However, five more can be added if you try very hard: the European Union plus the United States, Canada, Norway, the United Kingdom after Brexit and, of course, the Israeli military. Anyway, it turns out to be somehow unclear, artificially, dragged in. I tried to add the number 32 to the existing international structures for several days. Nothing came up. However, I did not seem to take into account the simplest: the number 32 was simply taken from the ceiling, and there are no mathematical calculations, formulas, and so on. It's just that the military man decided that 32 is a rather impressive number. Any tenth-grader will understand that this is serious, and you need to prepare for the defense of the homeland now. In general, it does not matter how many enemy states threaten our sovereignty. I even admit that there are completely different numbers in different schools. One military man has 32 beer bottles in the hallway – he names 32 countries. The other, for example, has 28, which is exactly what he will say in class. But the main thesis that sounds in the lessons of pre-conscription training in Belarusian schools is "if it were not for Russia, we would have been drowned in blood, and Putin is our savior."

If the story concerned a single school, where a mad military worker shoots back from enemies, it would be half the trouble. But such speeches are heard everywhere. And not only for high school students. Children from elementary school are trying to make them fear and hate the civilized world and love Putin's savior. Many of my friends, whose children study in Minsk schools, said that it was in this school year that guests from Russia suddenly went to schools – representatives of some incomprehensible public organizations. Children were herded into the school halls to meet with these very "guests", and they asked: how do you guys feel about the SWO? The daughter of my friends shouted with her thready voice: "We are for peace!" She was told harshly: the answer is wrong, girl. They began to talk about Banderites and denazification. Of course, about Putin the savior.

If earlier Belarusian schools were suffocated by Lukashenka's abundance in different variations, the school year ending today was full with Putin and Russia topics. I do not know the reason: that Belarus is thus preparing for war with Ukraine, or that Russia is preparing for a quiet and imperceptible annexation of Belarus. Of course, it is difficult to indoctrinate today's schoolchildren. But the very fact of the appearance of Russian "guests" in Belarusian schools is frightening.

Of course, it is great that in the next three months, children will be free of ideological "porridge", which they are fed in three spoons. But the holidays end quickly: the first of September will come soon. Watching what is happening in our schools now, I can say for sure: to remove from schools this monstrous ideology, and indeed any ideology, is as important a task as the release of political prisoners, bringing to justice those responsible for repression and the return of national symbols. It is impossible to clean the Augean stables in a checkrow way – only totally, and even with bleach.

Iryna Khalip, specially for Charter97.org

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